Local, regional and national home prices strengthen

In the San Diego-Carlsbad-San Marcos area, home prices, including distressed sales, increased by 7.9 percent in December 2012 compared to December 2011, according to CoreLogic’s December CoreLogic HPI report.

Home prices, including distressed sales, increased by 0.7 percent in December 2012 compared to November 2012.

Excluding distressed sales, prices increased by 10.2 percent in December 2012 compared to December 2011.

Excluding distressed sales, the CoreLogic (NYSE: CLGX) HPI indicates home prices increased by 1.1 percent in December 2012 compared to November 2012.

California was one of the five states with the highest home price appreciation.

Including distressed transactions, the peak-to-current change in the national HPI (from April 2006 to December 2012) was -26.9 percent.

Excluding distressed transactions, the peak-to-current change in the HPI for the same period was -20.8 percent.

The five states with the largest peak-to-current declines, including distressed transactions, were Nevada (-52.4 percent), Florida (-43.5 percent), Arizona (-39.8 percent), Michigan (-36.5 percent) and California (-35.4 percent).

The CoreLogic Pending HPI indicated that January 2013 home prices, including distressed sales, are expected to rise by 7.9 percent on a year-over-year basis from January 2012 and fall by 1 percent from December 2012, reflecting a seasonal winter slowdown.

Excluding distressed sales, January 2013 house prices are poised to rise 8.6 percent year over year from January 2012 and by 0.7 percent month over month from December 2012.

"We are heading into 2013 with home prices on the rebound," said Anand Nallathambi, president and CEO of CoreLogic.

"The upward trend in home prices in 2012 was broad based with 46 of 50 states registering gains for the year," Nallathambi said. "All signals point to a continued improvement in the fundamentals underpinning the U.S. housing market recovery."

At the national level, home prices in January advanced 0.9 percent over the rolling quarter, unchanged over December’s rate of growth, according to Clear Capital’s Home Data Index (HDI) Market Report with data through January 2013.

While national prices were mostly flat, they are still in positive territory.

Home prices in the West also continued to improve, with growth of 2.1 percent over the last rolling quarter.

Like national trends, the West’s price growth held steady over December’s quarterly rate of growth.

The Western region experienced the most significant short term price growth out of all the regions, and it’s not surprising that 11 out of the 15 top performing metros reside in the West.

Very little quarterly price change took place in the South, Northeast, and Midwest.

Quarterly home prices in the South rose 0.7 percent, a slight improvement over the prior month.

The Northeast’s small quarterly advancement of 0.6 percent is noteworthy because it’s double December’s rate of growth.

The region continues to turn out slow yet steady growth, with each of its price tiers making small steps in the right direction.

The Midwest experienced the lowest quarterly growth of all the regions, at just 0.2 percent, due to a handful of major metros experiencing flat prices.

Chicago and Detroit helped put the brakes on the region’s growth overall, and considering the season, these trends don’t raise too much concern.

National home prices in January rose 5.4 percent over the prior year, a continuation of 2012’s positive trajectory.

The main driving force in markets across the United States continued to be the low-tier priced segment, those homes selling for $102,000 and less, of which many are REO sales.

The national REO saturation rate in January held at 18.4 percent, down from a peak of 41.0 percent in March 2009.

The West recorded the highest yearly growth of all the regions, at 12.9 percent.

As the market adjusts to a higher price floor and declining REO saturation, it’s likely future price trends will moderate.

REO saturation in the West is 17.2 percent, down from a peak of 52.5 percent in March 2009.

The correlation between price trends and REO saturation continues to be a key indicator of market performance.

The South also continued to make progress, with yearly gains of 4.5 percent in January.

The recovery in the South has a long way to go before total losses of 33.1 percent are recouped.

January home prices in the Northeast rose 2.4 percent over the last year.

While this rate of growth is the lowest out of all the regions, it’s an impressive jump over December’s yearly rate of growth of 1.5 percent.

Yearly price gains of 2.7 percent in the Midwest retreated slightly when compared to last month’s 3.0 percent rate of growth.